Willow!

Time trials and me don't always go as planned. This year having my own dedicated time trial bike has really paid off.   With Fisk being only two weeks prior, it didn't leave a lot of time to correct the issues that plagued me there.  Strange enough this year the weather at the start was in the low 40's, really fricking cold.   My recent training in Kentucky the past two weeks has spoiled me with warmer weather.  I really wasn't excited to race in the cold. I still toughed it out and put the skin suit on, you really shouldn't wear those under 55.   My goal for the race was to hit the 6, 2.2 mile laps as hard as possible.  So after a 35 minute warmup I was ready to roll off the start line. Due to the alphabet seeding I was once again the first Cat 3 to start.  This year I was hoping to not get past by anyone.  The race started bad for me, my pacing was horrible.  I had this issue at Fisk, by lap three I got it corrected.  However those seconds lost add up.

The only main complaint I had in the race was the cars trapped on the course due to poor timing by corner marshals.  I got impeded by a few cars, oh well...probably cost me 5-10 seconds.  Finally going into 5th lap someone past me.  I figured a Cat 1 would pass me at some point.  He would be the only to pass me, and he only got 10 seconds ahead of me in the next two laps. His passing me pushed me to go faster, further proving the point my pacing was bad if I could hang with the Cat 1.   I finished in 30:44, a new PR for me at Willow, hitting almost 26 MPH average. I though at the time when I finished my result would be poor, however it was enough for 4th in Cat 3 and 18th overall. I lost out on 3rd by 4 tenths of a second.  While I am happy about the result, I still wish I would have been on the podium, darn car traffic. I guess my time trial legs are back, now I just need to fix my pacing issues so I can be strong at the state tt.  Next up is Cone Azalia, this will be the real test but I feel ready.

Below is a little video that Marisa filmed and then I edited on my new iPad 3. 

Full Results